Masally District fire, October 2017 Masally District, Neftchala District
The fire started on 27 October 2017 in Masally District, Azerbaijan, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 717 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 99th largest in Contiguous Azerbaijan since 2016 (of 168 with a page). Number 14 in Azerbaijan in 2017, of 20.
- Burnt area
- 717ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 27 Oct 2017 – 29 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 132 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 344MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.7 mm on 8 Nov.
This area had burned before
16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 113 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Masally District where it started535 ha reached on 27 Oct0.7 %
-
183 ha reached on 29 Oct0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct | 25.5 °C | 36 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 Oct | 20.6 °C | 70 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 29 Oct | 26.1 °C | 45 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 30 Oct after | 29.9 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 31 Oct after | 24.6 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 1 Nov after | 18.2 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Nov after | 17.3 °C | 28 % | 50 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Nov after | 18.0 °C | 50 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 4 Nov after | 16.8 °C | 65 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 5 Nov after | 19.4 °C | 62 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 6 Nov after | 16.7 °C | 72 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 7 Nov after | 18.0 °C | 76 % | 19 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very low 5 |
| 8 Nov after | 16.5 °C | 82 % | 26 km/h | 5.7 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 15Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 547 haMasally DistrictAugust 2023 · 1 day · 3 km away
- 1,819 haLankaran DistrictSeptember 2021 · 4 days · 7 km away
- 514 haNeftchala DistrictJune 2016 · 1 day · 9 km away
- 940 haLankaran DistrictSeptember 2020 · 2 days · 27 km away
- 1,506 haLankaran DistrictJuly 2022 · 4 days · 34 km away
- 1,320 haBilehsavarJune 2016 · 5 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Masally District fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 October 2017 and 29 October 2017: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 717 hectares (7.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Masally District (535 ha, 0.7 %); Neftchala District (183 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Azerbaijan (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 112
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.